''Anyuta'' (russian: Аню́та) is a one-act comic

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

to a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Mikhail Popov. First performed in 1772, it was one of the first operas written in the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

. The collection of Popov's poems, translations and plays called ''Dosugi'' (''Досуги'' – ''Leisure Hours'') was published at the request of Empress

Catherine II , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

. This collection also contained the libretto to the opera ''Anyuta''. The music hasn't survived and its composer is not known, however it has sometimes been attributed to

Vasily Pashkevich Vasily Alexeyevich Pashkevich also Paskevich (russian: Васи́лий Алексе́евич Пашке́вич or Паске́вич) (c. 1742, probably Ukraine – March 20, 1797 in St. Petersburg) was a Russian composer, singer, violini ...

or even to

Yevstigney Fomin Yevstigney Ipat'yevich Fomin (russian: Евстигне́й Ипа́тьевич Фоми́н) (born St. Petersburg – died St. Petersburg c ) was a Russian opera composer of Ukrainian originShuliar, Orest: History of Vocal Art. Ivano- ...

although at that time he was just 11 years old. It is known that the music was a selection of popular songs as specified in the libretto.

Performance history

The premiere took place at the Chinese Theatre, Tsarskoye Selo, on September 6

S August 26 S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

1772. It was one of the most successful.

Plot

It is a story about a girl called Anyuta, brought up in a peasants' household, who turned out to be of noble birth, eventually marrying her nobleman beloved, Victor, to the sound of wedding bells.

Sources

*Leach, Robert and Borovsky, Victor
''A History of Russian Theatre''
Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 72. {{ISBN, 0-521-43220-0 *Polovtsev, A.A

(''Русский биографический словарь'' А.А.Половцова) published 1896–1918. *Seaman, Gerald R.
"Russian opera before Glinka"
''Russia: Essays in History and Literature'', Lyman Howard (ed.), Brill Archive, 1972, pp. 62–63.

External links

Russian-language operas Operas 1772 operas One-act operas